TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor's note: The video above is from June 2020.
A Toledo man shot by Oregon police in 2020 and charged with attempting to harm officers received a verdict Wednesday.
Victor Dale Jr. was indicted in May 2021 on one count of first-degree felonious assault and one count of fourth-degree assault. Dale pleaded not guilty to both charges.
On Wednesday, a jury determined Dale is not guilty of either charge.
In June 2020, Oregon police officers fired 21 shots at Dale after he drove a vehicle at one of them.
Police were called to the Kingston Court Apartments on Navarre Avenue for an unrelated call of an attempted break-in just before 10 p.m. Once at the apartments, officers claim they were approached in the parking lot by someone reporting a couple fighting.
Footage from the bodycam worn by Officer Joel Turner, at whom Dale is seen driving his vehicle, shows Dale and his girlfriend talking and they said they were not fighting, but were having a discussion about their daughter.
After this, Dale is seen getting in the vehicle and driving toward Turner, then shots are fired. Dale drives off and officers are seen running in the direction of the vehicle. Dale is ordered out of the vehicle, and he opens the driver door and slumps bloodied to the ground.
Officers cuff him and then begin medical aid. Dale was taken to a hospital and later released.
Turner was treated for minor injuries.
Police said Dale did not have a gun.
No criminal charges were filed against the officers, but Turner and Officer Logan Nitkiewicz were suspended without pay after the department concluded only one, two or three shots from each of them were justified, and the rest were not.
Dale sued the city of Oregon and both officers for use of excessive force.